In previous chapters, we have spoken already of the intimacy of Beaumarchais with Lenormant D’Etioles. The latter’s fête happening a few days after Beaumarchais’s return from Vienna, he suddenly appeared unannounced in the midst of the gay festival, to the unbounded joy of his old friends. As the entertainment progressed, Beaumarchais absented himself for half an hour, returning with a song in dialect, which he had just composed in honor of his host. A young man present sang it before the company. Its success was complete, and along with the one previously mentioned, it soon spread all over Paris. This song contained a verse which recalled in a very pleasing way, the personal affair which was of such great importance to the author, and which had served to make him popular. He was thus kept fresh in the public mind and its sympathetic interest was conserved.
“Mes chers amis, pourriez-vous m’enseigner
J’im bon seigneur don cha’un parle?
Je ne sais pas comment vous l’designer
C’pendent, on dit qu’il a nom Charle ...
...
L’hiver passé j’eut un mandit procès
Qui m’donna bien d’la tablature.
J’m’en vais vous l’dire: ils m’avons mis exprès
Sous c’te nouvelle magistrature;
Charlot venait, jarni,
Me consolait, si fit;
Ami, ta cause est bonne et ronde ...
...
Est ce qu’on blâme ainsi le pauvre monde?”
CHAPTER XIII
Le Barbier De Séville—